


Constants

by asexualjuliet



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, I love him okay, Jonathan Byers deserves better, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-13 13:22:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20583191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asexualjuliet/pseuds/asexualjuliet
Summary: There’s not a lot of constants in Jonathan Byers’ life.There’s his mom and Will, of course. The house, the town.And Nancy Wheeler.





	Constants

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Blue](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7843435) by [theystayalive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theystayalive/pseuds/theystayalive). 

> I loved the idea of Nancy and Jonathan meeting each other for the first time and decided to try my own take on it and then I ended up taking it way further.

There’s not a lot of constants in Jonathan Byers’ life. 

There’s his mom and Will, of course. The house, the town. 

And Nancy Wheeler. 

He meets her when he’s five, on the first day of kindergarten. She says _ hi my name is Nancy _ and he shyly replies _ I’m Jonathan. _

_ That’s a nice name, _ she says, but maybe he takes too long to think of something to say back because just as soon as she came, she’s gone, across the room talking to someone who will probably actually talk back to her. 

When he’s seven, it appears that every girl in the second grade has chosen a boy to be in love with, and apparently, Jonathan made the cut, because Nancy Wheeler chases him around the playground every day at recess trying to kiss him. 

He’s supposed to pretend he doesn’t like it, because that’s what the other boys do. He tries to pretend, but he’s never gotten this kind of attention before and it’s nice. 

So he pretends to trip and fall and lets Nancy Wheeler kiss him on the cheek and tries not to smile. 

Their little brothers meet when Nancy and Jonathan are nine and when Jonathan’s mother goes to pick up Will from a playdate at the Wheelers’ house, he’ll come with her. 

He’ll walk in the door and when he sees Nancy he’ll smile and say a quiet hi and she’ll smile back but won’t say too much because in second grade the school called home about her chasing him during recess and even though neither of them cared, they don’t want their moms to remember that because it’s embarrassing. 

When they’re eleven, Jonathan realizes that everyone around him seems to have a best friend. Tommy H’s best friend is Steve Harrington and Will’s best friend is Mike Wheeler and Nancy Wheeler’s best friend is Barbara Holland. 

If Jonathan had to pick a best friend, he’d probably choose his camera. 

When they’re thirteen, Jonathan is labeled a freak. 

_ Freak, nerd, dork, loser, geek. _

Nancy’s too pretty and smart for a label like that. 

_ Smart, nice, pretty, funny, cute. _

Pretty girls don’t talk to freaks, not even in the hallway when they’re just passing by. 

Fifteen and anyone with eyes and a brain can tell that Steve Harrington’s into Nancy Wheeler. 

Steve Harrington is tall and handsome and cool, and he’s the kind of guy who gets into fights behind the school and beats up freaks like Jonathan. 

No _ freak _ can compete with Steve Harrington. 

Sixteen is when life turns upside down, and Will’s gone and Jonathan’s mother is losing it. 

He’s willing to bet his entire life’s savings that _ Steve Harrington _ has never had to deal with something like this. 

He hangs up the posters and tries to block out the rest of the world. 

_ Oh, God, that's depressing. _

_ Should we say something? _

_ I don't think he speaks. _

_ How much you want to bet he killed him? _

Jonathan’s blood is starting to boil when he hears a quiet _hey_ beside him. He doesn’t even need to look up to recognize her voice, but he does, looking into her pretty blue eyes and getting out a small _ oh, hey. _

It’s been maybe a year since Nancy Wheeler has said anything to him, so he’s close to a hundred percent sure she’s about to say something about Will. 

_ I just I wanted to say, you know, um, I'm sorry about everything. Everyone's thinking about you. It sucks. _

This is a bold-faced lie. _ Everyone’s thinking about you. _ It’s complete bull, and Jonathan knows that she knows that, so he just says _ yeah. _

_ I'm sure he's fine. He's a smart kid, _ she says, and it’s like they’re in kindergarten again, because Jonathan’s trying so hard to think of something to say, but his mind is a total blank. 

The bell rings and Nancy says _ I have to go. Chemistry test. _

_ Yeah, _ Jonathan says again, _ Good luck. _

_ Thanks. _

They’re still sixteen when Jonathan goes out to look for clues and gets distracted and takes some pictures he probably shouldn’t have. 

They’re still sixteen when Steve Harrington takes his backpack and rips up his photos and ruins his camera. 

They’re still sixteen when he’s hunched over in the school parking lot and Nancy Wheeler looks at him with a look in her eyes that he can’t quite describe but that makes guilt rise up in his chest as he picks up the pieces of his photographs. 

They’re still sixteen when she takes off with the pieces of the photograph he’d taken of Barb Holland before she’d bolted off that night. 

And they’re still sixteen but Jonathan feels much older when he’s alone in a funeral home, picking out a coffin for his little brother, and he sees her out of the corner of his eye. 

She’s standing in the doorway of the room full of tiny coffins, blue eyes sad and filled with pity. 

She greets him with another _hey_ and she shows him the taped-up photo he’d taken of Barb. She points to the thing on the very right side of the photograph and says _ do you know what it is? _

He tries to come up with an explanation, but nothing sounds right. She needs answers though, he can see it in her eyes. 

_ And you're sure you didn't see anyone else out there? _

_ No. She was there one second and then, um, gone. I figured she bolted. _

_ The cops think that she ran away. But they don't know Barb. And I went back to Steve's and I thought I saw something. Some weird man or—I don't know what it was. _

There must be some sort of doubt in his eyes, because she starts to apologize. 

_ I'm sorry. I—I shouldn't have come here today. I'm so sorry. _

But then it clicks. 

_ What'd he look like? _

_ What? _

_ This man you saw in the woods. What'd he look like? _

_ I don't know. _

_ It was almost like he—he didn't have _

_ Didn't have a face? _

Her eyes go wide. 

_ How did you know that? _

And all of a sudden, Jonathan Byers and Nancy Wheeler are on speaking terms again. 

And later, he thinks, when he’s lying awkwardly in Nancy Wheeler’s bed, wearing a jacket and blue jeans, Nancy curled up next to him, maybe they’re on a little more than speaking terms. 

And even though things are crazy, and there are less constants in Jonathan’s life than ever, Nancy Wheeler is one of them.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> All mistakes are my own, please let me know if you see any!
> 
> Kudos/Comments are greatly appreciated!


End file.
